Since I'm new to this maybe another shot at explaining.

There are no empty records in the coitem_log table - every time a line item on a order is changed an entry is created. When I run this wide open I get my list of all product codes and items that match each product code - NULLS are what I'm expecting if a specific product code didn't have activity for any of its corresponding items.

Most months there are some product codes that DON'T have corresponding items on a order but each month I need a complete list of all the product codes and activity for any items that match it's corresponding product code.

thanks for the suggestions thus far - hope this helps.